Wordless Wednesday

*Disclaimer:  We have had some concern about the fact that this doesn't look like a Jersey.  Several years ago we tried crossbreeding some of our cows that were having problems with mastitis in hopes of increasing their offspring's resistance.  We crossbred 4 of our Jerseys with New Zealand Ayrshires (another dairy breed).  We have sold all of the cows from those crosses, this is a steer we kept from one of those crosses.  It's hard to tell from his color, but he is 3/4 Jersey and 1/4 Ayrshire.  He is in with our young heifers (the ones in the background) so he has company until it is time to harvest him.  Good eye, readers! Good eye!

Afraid to crack that egg?

We've all done it.  You are digging in the fridge and find a mysterious carton of eggs.  How long has that been there?  Are they still good?  Do I dare crack one to find out?  Never fear!  Here's a sure fire way to tell how old those eggs are!  

With all of the chickens running around here we sometimes have a surplus of eggs and lose track of what order they were collected in! When that happens we pull out a bowl or glass of water and give the eggs a little bath.  If they float we know they are old and need tossed, if they sink we know they are nice and fresh!

Just like this...

 The brown egg just happens to be really old, so it floats like a cork.  The white egg is fresh so it sinks all the way to the bottom.

So what exactly is going on here?  Well egg shells aren't as solid as we tend to think.  They are actually porous to allow gas exchange in case there is a chick growing inside.  Over time the dense liquid inside the egg can evaporate and shrink, allowing more air to displace the space left behind.  Eventually the egg is so much lighter that it floats when placed in water!  Obviously this doesn't happen all at once so there is a gradient of where the egg stays once placed in the water.  The freshest eggs lay right on the bottom, the oldest float to the top, and those in between - well, they settle somewhere in between the top and bottom.

Surfing around on the web you will find lots of opinions about what to do with the "floaters".  Some say toss them, some say that as long as they were stored at an appropriate temperature you can use them for boiled eggs - here at the farm we like to play it safe and toss all the ones that float.  We also try to use only the freshest eggs in things we might consume raw (like cookie dough!).

So next time you encounter those 'mystery eggs' confront them confidently with a bowl of water and you will never be surprised by that awful sulfur smell again!



For liability reasons I must remind you that suggestions from Brickhouse Cheese are not to replace safe handling practices of your food.  Brickhouse Cheese takes no responsibility for illness that might occur from any of our suggestions or recipes.

Feathered Friends - Purple Martins

We have lots of birds around the Brickhouse, but some of them are particularly helpful to us.  The top three are Purple Martins, Brown Headed Cow Birds, and Barn Martins.  These birds all perform unique and important roles around the farm.

Of these, Mom’s favorite is the Purple Martin.

Purple Martins are one of the biggest of the swallows, measuring in at roughly 20 cm long beak to tail.  You can recognize them by their slightly forked tail and beautiful acrobatics in the air.  Adult males are solid black with a glossy steel blue sheen, females are dark on their tops with some of the same sheen and light on their bellies. 

Purple Martins are migratory birds (moving between North and South America each year) that like to return to the same nesting place year after year; this habit is called “site fidelity”.  As long as nothing disrupts their breeding/hatching success (such as predators) a pair of purple martins will return to that same site their entire life.

Getting ready to hunt some more after a short visit to the nest!

Purple Martins also possess a quality known as “site tenacity”, this means they can and will fight for their nesting sites.  This is a good thing because they have heavy competition for nesting sites from starlings and sparrows.  While we try to discourage these competitors, without help from the Martins themselves we would never see a successful hatching of Martins.  Part of this competition comes from the fact that all three birds are called “cavity-nesters” and prefer manmade housing of similar size.  While the sparrows are genuinely looking for a home, many times the starlings are looking for surrogate parents for their young and will kick out Martin’s eggs, laying their own in place of them and then leave so the Martins will raise their young.   Since these competitors are not protected or endangered, almost every spring the boys can be seen protecting the Martin houses while the birds are establishing their new nests for the year.

A Male and Female keeping watch over their nests.

The biggest reason we love martins and work hard to attract and protect them is their diet.  Purple Martins are obligate areal insectivores – which is a fancy way of saying they only eat flying insects and they only eat then while flying themselves.  Martins are also generalists (aren’t we all?  I know I love food in general!) which means as long as it flies it is on the menu.  As such they eat a huge variety of insects, including but not limited to: beetles, FLIES, midges, mayflies, bees, wasps, moths, MOSQUITOS, damselflies, grasshoppers, butterflies and leaf hoppers.   We especially love the inclusion of flies and mosquitoes in their diet, and they eat a lot, especially since they can feed their babies up to 60 times per day! 

Martins love to practice their eating aerobatics while we mow the pastures.  They swoop around in front of and behind the tractor as it scares up bugs of all kinds.

Eating is not the only thing these birds do on the fly.  They also drink and bathe while flying!  It is so neat to watch them soaring over the pond and then suddenly dipping lower to skim the water with their beak, leaving a pretty V in their wake.

We so appreciate these marvelous birds, and even go so far as to add them to our list of feathered friends!

Drought Reaches Brickhouse...

Drought is something many of us don't think about in our day to day routines, something from Bible stories or suffered by people living on other continents.  This summer, however, we have been reminded that drought can reach right into the heart of our very own neighborhoods.  The 2012 drought is the largest of the last 50 years and in the top ten for droughts of this century, it is even starting to rival the dust bowl (source from The Weather Channel's site).  And that was just at the end of June, not counting the continued lack of rain into July.  What does this mean?  Well, for most folks it just means ugly yards and hotter temperatures, for farmers it threatens their livelihoods.


The consequences at Brickhouse are twofold, both immediate and delayed.  The immediate consequence is decreased quantity/quality of our pastures.  Remember those lush green pastures Grandpa was mowing in our previous post?  They have turned brown and crispy just like the lawns in your neighborhood.  We have to be very careful how we graze the pastures now.  Too much grazing will permanently damage the stand of forage since the cows will overgraze the few green things left in the pasture.  This also means the cows aren't getting what they need from the pasture as they usually do.  So we are needing to pull from those stores of hay we put up for winter to supplement their diets now.

Just two months ago...

Same pasture right now...

That's where the delayed consequences come in.  We are already feeding hay to keep the cows healthy - hay that was intended for winter months when there wasn't enough pasture to graze on.  Not only are we depleting those stores very early, we also are not going to have opportunity to make much extra hay to compensate since the hay fields are stunted and brown right now too.  Normally we can expect four cuttings of hay in a season.  We were able to put up two from most of our fields before the drought set in - we have already missed the window for the third and now may not be able to make the fourth (normally we stop cutting the hay fields during early fall to give the plants time to store up carbs for the winter).


In addition to the anticipated roughage (hay) shortage, this drought and accompanying high temps hit corn growers at a crucial time.  Corn pollinates during a period called "tasseling" where it releases its pollen which fertilizes the corn seeds.  Without fertilization the corn plant cannot make corn.  Period.  No second chances.  Pollen is very sensitive to temperature and humidity.  If it is too dry the pollen will dehydrate and be unsuccessful.  If it is too hot (above approximately 88*F for an extended period of time) the pollen will die and, of course, be unsuccessful.  We had exactly those conditions for two long weeks during which most of the corn in our area was "tasseling".  Much of the nation suffered similar conditions.  This means that we will not have enough corn to supply our needs as we usually do, and that it will be unusually expensive to buy corn because of a nationwide shortage.


So what's a dairy farmer to do?  Co-ops around the country are brainstorming and communicating with their growers to figure out that exact question as we speak.  While we don't have a complete plan yet, one of the things we know will happen here at Brickhouse is making more silage and less grain corn.  When making grain corn we only harvest the ears of corn and leave the stalk behind.  This give us the most concentrated energy and is simplest to store for future use.  Silage however uses the whole stalk.  While its not as nutritionally dense as grain, it does provide more roughage and will help offset the shortage of hay we are experiencing. 

Another option being considered on a national level is temporarily shutting down ethanol plants (the ones that use corn to make fuel).  This would reduce demand for corn and make it more available for farmers who need it for feed.


While its going to make for a rough year, here at Brickhouse we are hunkering down and doing all we can to prepare for the added challenges coming our way.  


How has the drought affected your neighborhood and what steps are you taking to counter the damage?

Lessons From the Ant, Preparing Baleage for Winter

Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones.
    Learn from their ways and become wise! Though they have no prince
    or governor or ruler to make them work,
 they labor hard all summer,
    gathering food for the winter.

Proverbs 6:6-8

Ants are creatures of little strength,
    yet they store up their food in the summer...

Proverbs 30:25

In order to survive and be successful we need to be wise in how we manage our time and resources.  We need to look to the future and be prepared to care for ourselves and those under our care, including our animals.  We seek wisdom from many places; those more experienced around us, scripture and nature itself to name a few.  All of these sources tell us that though it may be hard to think about winter’s cold during a balmy summer day, we must not only think about it, but also prepare for it.  Thus much of the work during summer is preparation for winter’s bite.

It is no small feat to get enough hay, grain, silage and baleage stored to feed roughly 200 plus cattle (including dry cows and heifers) from late October to early April when there isn’t enough grass in pasture to sustain them.  It takes all of us working in concert, the weather cooperating, and equipment working at peak standard to get it all done.  Each feed type has its own unique process to get it cow and storage ready.  Today we will look at baleage (remember baleage from our last Farmerese lesson?).

Once the hay is tall enough and we have a forecast of enough sunshine to get the jobs done (hopefully three days to a week), tractors start up and head to the field.  It takes all generations working together to get this job done efficiently.  Roger’s Dad, Benny (first generation), comes in to help Roger (second generation) and the boys cut and rake the hay, Roger usually operates the baler, Andrew (third generation) is often on the rake or helping to move hay bales and Daniel (also third generation) operates the wrapper.  When he is available to help Rob (Lisa’s dad) comes and fills in where needed.

Long windrows of hay waiting to be baled!

It is a bit of a mad rush to get the 70 acres of hay that are good enough quality for baleage cut, raked, baled, moved to the wrapper and wrapped at just the right stage.  Baleage is a little trickier than dry hay (which true to its name, completely dries out before baling) because it needs to retain just the right amount of moisture to ferment (somewhere between 55 and 65%).  If the hay is too dry, the microorganisms won’t grow quickly enough and the hay just rots, if it is too wet the microorganism population explodes but then quickly runs out of food, also causing spoilage. 

Fresh big bale from the baler!

Once baled we wrap our big bales in white plastic using a special machine that gets the plastic very tight so air cannot get in (which can also ruin the baleage).  It’s really neat to watch this machine at work. 

Our "in-line" wrapper.

See this piece of equipment in action on our Facebook page!

The cows absolutely love this; we love for them to have it too.  Because of the added moisture the cows can consume more of this without needing to take a break to drink like with dry hay.  The more food they can eat the more milk they can make (within reason of course)!  It’s so funny to see them crowd around a freshly opened bale in the winter, sometimes steaming in the cold air due to the lingering heat from the fermentation process.  After a few summer months fermenting in the heat this baleage will be just what the cows are craving on those cold winter mornings.

At the end of a long day's work I think we’ve completed work even an ant would be proud of.

Snaking rows of completed baleage.

Llama Watch

Ahh, sunset on the farm, a breeze blowing through the grass, heifers grazing on clover, llamas drinking at the pond – wait!  Llamas?!?!  Yep llamas!

Predators can be a serious issue for our dry cows and yearling heifers who stay in some of the remote pastures and don’t get as much attention as our milking cows.  Neighborhood dogs like to see the cows run, coyotes want a meal and panthers stalk about for snacks, what’s a bovine to do?  Join up with a llama of course!

Roger and Lisa brought home our first llamas (Bandito and Cantessa) after we had issues with neighbor’s dogs chasing our dairy cows.  The dogs had fun, the cows did not, and some of them even ended up injured.  We had considered guard dogs but they required more training and input than we had time for.  At the recommendation of one of our friends we decided to try a pair of llamas. 

 

While they don’t want to be right with the cows at all times they are tolerant of their pasture mates and fiercely protective of their territory.  They despise predators and will chase, kick, bite and spit any intruders out of the pasture as soon as their alert ears and eyes spot them.  Needles to say, since Bandito and Cantessa came home, the neighborhood dogs avoid our pastures.

The heifers are forever curious about the llamas and impromptu games of follow the leader often ensue.

 

Bandito doesn’t mind so much, but Cantessa prefers to have her personal space!

  

While striking a strange profile in contrast to the petite heifers, our llamas have become an important part of the Brickhouse farm.  Their watchful eyes and alert ears protect our girls from harm, even when we can’t be near.

Spring at the Brickhouse

Calves are being born, flowers are blooming, the garden is being planned, chicks are arriving in the mail and Roger is in the field planting - Spring is here!  The cows aren't the only ones excited about the new flush of growth, our chickens are out happily pecking at the new grass and the dogs always love a good roll!

Udders swinging, these girls are excited to get on some fresh pasture!

It just isn't Spring without bulbs popping out of the ground!

The cows grazing by the pear trees...

History...

It has often been said that if you don't know where you come from you cannot know where you are going.  Here at Brickhouse Cheese we have a deep appreciation for where we have come from and how the Lord has brought us to the place we are today. 

The Brickhouse

The farm came to our family in 1963 when Granddaddy and Granny moved from Kentucky to purchase their first farm after years of tenant farming.  Family has always been central to life on the farm.  Granny and Granddaddy raised three boys here, the middle boy Roger purchased the home place and is raising seven children here and Roger's first grandchild has just been welcomed into the family.  We all believe it is hard to find a better or more fun way to raise children than on the farm.

Granny with granddaughter in the first parlor.

Although the dairy has been active intermittently since the farm's beginning, the current herd was established in 1995.  After those past experiences it was decided that our cows would be managed and fed just as God originally designed - on grass.  Silage, grain and hay are all treats reserved for the milking parlor and winter time with their main meals coming from the pasture.  In the pasture our cows have lots of variety to choose from with different grasses, legumes and herbs specially selected to keep pasture lush most of the year.

Roger with youngest daughter, Hannah.

Through our sustainable practices we look forward to preserving the farm for many more generations to come!